Karoline Leavitt has been named Trump’s press secretary. She is 26 years old. Trump clearly thinks she’s right out of central casting. She’s also MAGA to the max: In MAGA world, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s super-PAC. But earlier this year, her focus seemed to be elsewhere. She published a series of op-eds heaping praise on Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese mogul and ally of Steve Bannon who has styled himself a leading critic of the Chinese Communist Party. Guo, who also goes by Miles Guo, has since been arrested and indicted in a massive fraud case. […] The op-eds were highly specific.
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Before the election, Rolling Stone asked a number of experts on authoritarianism about what to do if Trump won. They all had good advice but, for me, this is at the top of the list: Seeing the Threat Clearly Experts in authoritarianism insist that Trump’s dictatorial threats need to be taken with gravity because he’s already done “things that autocrats do,” says Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University who is an expert in Italian fascism and the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. “He has been able to domesticate a very old, storied party, and truly make it his personal tool,” she tells Rolling Stone. “He instigated a violent coup attempt,” and — instead of “having to go into exile or going to prison, like in Peru” — he “managed to paint it as a positive thing” or to make “a lot of Americans shrug their shoulders at it.” These are “preconditions for autocracy,” she insists.
Apparently, they don’t know: This grotesque action is happening all over the country and as far as I can tell nobody knows who’s doing it. I guess the point is to harrass and frighten kids. It’s working: Several Santa Monica High School students also received the derogatory message; they immediately reported the situation to school administrators and their parents. “I sent it to my family group chat and was like ‘Oh my god, someone sent me this message,’ and [my mom] was like ‘This is not okay’,” said Aubrielle Gomez. “I was shocked and I kind of started laughing because I thought it wasn’t real.” Ericka Lesley, whose children attend Santa Monica High School and were sent the text, says that the hateful messaging underscores a much larger issue not only plaguing California but all of America. “My son wants to leave the country; he doesn’t feel safe here,” Lesley told KTLA. “There are other people who say ‘Oh, we’re in California, we’re okay,’ — we’ve become too comfortable.
I have a problem with registering domains. When I have an idea for a Web site, software project, organization, or sometimes just a pun or joke, I’ll go on a domain registrar site and see what related domains are available. I’ll brainstorm a bit in the search screen to try some different options for names … Continue reading How to register just enough domains
In the face of a second Trump term, the left must cultivate a politics of everyday life that goes beyond voting, says columnist Natasha Lennard.
The post Radical Action Under Trump appeared first on The Intercept.
Alex Jones found out NBC News: The Onion, the satirical news company that repeatedly spoofed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has won the bankruptcy auction for control over his media empire — most notably InfoWars, the far-right, conspiracy-minded website that served as Jones’ primary online platform. Jones announced the sale on X Thursday morning. “I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the U.S. trustee over our bankruptcy this morning and they said they are shutting us down even without a court order this morning,” Jones said. “The Connecticut democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us,” he added. For those needing a reminder of what this is all about, The Washington Post explains: Infowars and its property are among the personal assets Jones was forced to sell in a court-ordered auction after a bankruptcy judge in June sought to compel Jones to paythe roughly $1.5 billion in damages he owes for claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
And Russia gets Tulsi!
Josh Marshall has an insightful piece up today called “Reckonings of Contempt” in which he discusses how so many people, including many liberals, hold the Democrats. He looks at some of the many pieces that are offering up criticism of the Harris campaign and the Democrats’ failure in general starting off with a piece by Eric Levitz at Vox which, as I have done here as have many others, looks at the global anti-incumbency mood as well as the more ominous implication of rightward move among the working class of all races and ethnicities. Pretty standard stuff and I think probably correct. However: Then there’s this piece in Axios. It probably won’t surprise you that I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. It starts … Democrats are a lost party.
Perfectly fine. Nothing weird happening here in the United States. Move along: A retired U.S. Army officer who clashed with senior officials in Donald Trump’s first White House looked into acquiring Italian citizenship in the run-up to this month’s election but wasn’t eligible and instead packeda “go bag” with cash and a list of emergency numbers in case he needs to flee… And a former U.S. official who signed a notorious October 2020 letter suggesting that emails purportedly taken from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden could be Russian disinformation is seeking a passport from a European country, uncertain about whether the getaway will prove necessary but concluding, “You don’t want to have to scramble.” All spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid undermining their own preparations. The planning, they acknowledge, responds to a hypothetical worst case in which a second Trump presidency ushers in systematic suppression of free speech and criminalization of dissent.
Former Harry Reid staffer Adam Jentleson gave a rundown on Xitter: A quick thread on what seems to be Trump’s plan to obliterate the Senate’s advise and consent responsibility so that he can recess appoint his cabinet, or at least those members who lack the votes to get confirmed by the Senate. Remember that only the Senate confirms nominees and judges. The House has no role in the confirmation process itself. The Constitution allows POTUS to make recess appointments, ie to put nominees in place without Senate confirmation. In the past this has been used sparingly. For recess appointments to happen, the Senate has to be in recess. For a decade or so, the Senate has not been going into recess when it adjourns but pro forma sessions, which can last up to 3 days. Long story, it goes back to Rs blocking Obama from doing recess appointments. Gonna try to avoid the weeds here, but the fact that Senate has been going into pro forma sessions is why you have the odd spectacle of senators gaveling the Senate in and out of session every three days during longer “recesses” like holiday breaks.